Vista T400 Clean Install Mini-Guide w/ Switchable Graphics

thank you guys. the device driver above works great

thank you for your help

 

Any tools as such?I tried 3 tools but only cpu-z returned the type of the RAM and the bus speed(which was 667 thus creating the doubt)...I am not too confident of opening the laptop

 

The tools I used were a small Phillips screwdriver and a pair of Mark-1 Eyeballs. Perhaps someone else knows of software tools that will correctly report what's inside the system.

Is there something causing you to think you have a different memory configuration?

 

warlock like lew said, you have DDR3. Lenovo does not make a T400 w/ DDR2. It's a different type slot and they would have to use a different type motherboard then. Don't worry so much.

 

Okay. As far as I can tell I've managed to install both GPUs. I've gone in to my bios and changed everything to switchable and OS discoverable. Now how exactly do I switch GPUs from within Vista? I don't see any black plug to click on, I just have the standard windows battery in my start menu bar.

 

Did you install Lenovo's Power Manager software? You must have that installed and loaded (I find it can take up to 30 seconds after you get to the desktop for it to load up).

If you're on AC power, you'll see a lenovo battery in the taskbar and a little black plug next to it (if your running on battery, just the battery pops up).

You can left-click on either the battery or the plug.

 

If I right click on the windows power icon, I can load something called "Power Manager." Is this the Lenovo manager? It's black and has a lot of options for power plans. I still can't find where to switch.

 

Yes, load Power Manager. In the upper right hand corner, make sure you switched to Advanced.

Then close the program and left-click on the battery meter. You should get a pop-up menu and the last option in it should be Switchable Graphics. If you don't see this, then the install messed up somewhere along the line.

Look in Device Manager to make sure both GPU's are installed properly under Displays.

 

Well something has messed up. Clicking on the battery just leads me to the windows power profile selections.

Both GPUs are listed in Device Manager. Also, the driver for the intel GPU is listed as being created by ATI.

At this point I'm about ready to nuke everything and go with XP. Switchable graphics aren't worth this much hassle.

 

Looshi, youre left clickin on the wrong battery meter. There are two battery meters, one in the notification area of your taskbar (the one youve been clicking on to show the profiles and launch the power manager), and the one in the taskbar immediately to the right of the notification area. It is the horizontal "doubleA battery" looking meter. If you left click on this icon, the switchable graphics option will be at the bottom with 2 options, High performance and energy saving.

 

followed these directions with no problems. Switchable Graphics worked on the first attemp. Thanks!

 

I feel slightly dumb. I disabled that icon when I first installed the power manager. Thank you for showing the the error of my ways.

 

Hi everyone,

I will be taking down the download link for the Lenovo Thinkpad T400 (ATI & Intel) switchable graphics driver soon. Please use the following link instead.

http://rapidshare.com/files/143744851/T400_Graphics.zip

And for those looking for the Intel Wifi 5100 / 5300 ABGN Vista driver, it is also available at...
http://rapidshare.com/files/143859313/12.0.4.0_VT_DRIVERS.zip
Of course, the Intel driver can also be found on Intel's site.

 

I'll update the first post with the new link, thanks.

 

Ok well, this might be a dumb question but I know I am on the Intel graphics chip set but I can't figure out where to switch. fn + f3 gives you the types of power plans, if I switch to maximum performance, does this mean it goes to the ATI chip?

 

Nope.

with Thinkvantage Power Manager running and displaying the battery gauge on the task bar, left-click the battery or the black plug. At the bottom of the menu is says "Switchable Graphics". Click on whichever choice you want to make.

 

It only has "maximum battery life" "power saver" and "high performance" when I right click the battery or the black plug. It doesn't have a "switchable graphics" option

 

I said left-click, not right click.

What's odd though is when I right-click I get "Remaining Percentage, Remaining Time on Battery, Close Power Manager Gauge, and Launch Power Manager" as the choices.

Just to double check: you *are* running Power Manager, you're clicking on Power Manager's battery gauge (big horizontal battery graphic with a % or time inside), and you're running Vista? You're not clicking on Vista's power manager icon, right?

 

I'll make a little picture of this since people keep having trouble with the actual switching.

 

That would be a big help for folks

 

OOO I was clicking the Vista power thing, I see it now. When I go to switchable graphics it has Energy saver and high performance. Thanks so much lew

 

Glad to help.

 

Added some pics to clarify.

 

Sorry guys i´m back

i have an unknown device in my system

Simple PCI Controller

The Lenovo AMT Driver don´t Work. If i run the setup.exe i become an error.

Hardware ID 8086 Dev 2A44. Anybody has a solution ?

 

Do you have the right driver (32bit vs. 64bit)?
Did you install the Modem drivers?

 

Alright, what am I doing wrong in installing the Matrix Storage drivers? I've gone through the Add Hardware wizard selecting manual install, but when I point to the inf file it doesn't show anything in the hardware box for me to select. I've tried right clicking on the inf file and selecting install, but it just tells me that the inf file I selected does not support this installation method.

What gives?


Nevermind. Figured it out.

 

Hmm having a slight problem getting the recovery disks. I made the mistake of creating product recovery disks which I later found out was not want I needed.

Googleing, I ran into Lenovo's website ( here) discussing an XP downgrade. I noticed that this was the other option I dismissed earlier but I also noticed that I don't recall seeing that bottom radio button section talking about making recovery disks as well. I went through with it anyways but it only creates a startup disk so i'm not sure if i did something to make that option go away (product disks?) or it just needs to be activated somehow.

Not sure if I majorly screwed something up here or not but any ideas would be appreciated. Think my next move is to follow Stallen's guide and go to mydigitallife , but I just want to make sure I didn't over look something. Vista Business OS. Thanks for any comments.

-Josh

 

Got everything major installed, just have some odds and ends and software to deal with. Switchable graphics works fine but like you (Janko) I have the Intel graphics icon staying in the task bar after switching to discrete graphics.

 

If you're not concerned about ever returning your T400 to it's factory installation state, then don't worry about the recovery disks.

Just backup your swtools folder for drivers and you should be fine.

 

Yeah it would randomly hang around for me, not sure why. Maybe someone else can figure that out.

I just ended up disabling the intel icon, I never used it anyway and it can be accessed from the Control Panel as well. The ATI one still works fine.

 

I'm just getting this:

 

Did you switch to Advanced in the Power Manager Program?

Also that shows up when you RIGHT-click.

You need to Left-click.

 

omfg left clicking ; ; I spent like hours and hours reinstalling crap and it was working the whole time >_<

 

lol sucks

 

I'm also getting the incorrect driver in the taskbar sometimes. It'd be nice if there were a fix for this, but, oh well, great guide. Another gripe that I'm having with the notebook after the format is that after I close and re-open it and the computer locks, the fingerprint software doesn't seem to register that I'm swiping my finger and I'm forced to do password logon.

 

Hmm, works fine for me after a fresh install. One thing that I realized I was doing before, when you do get that screen, look up at the very top and make sure the message 'Please swipe your finger' is displayed. I think I found out that if you swipe too quickly while it still says 'Please wait...' then it'll just lock the fingerprint reader up and you'll have to enter your password. I noticed that if you just wait a second for it to load completely then it seems to always work fine.

 

Before wiping it clean I figured that the fingerprint reader took a second to be ready. I didn't actually read the on screen message though, I'd just wait a second before swiping my finger and it would work fine.

I also forgot that after formatting the fingerprint software wouldn't need me to register my fingers again. That was pretty amusing when I first saw it asking me to swipe after a boot and I hadn't even trained it yet. Forgot about that security chip!

I think I may do the same if it keeps acting goofy.

 

Now that the drivers are back up, it says something in the install guide about making sure you don't have any graphics control panel applets running when switching modes. I don't know if that means we should manually close the ATI and Intel programs in the system tray before switching or not. I know the ATI one seems to work fine and closes and renables itself when I switch so I dunno.

 

Im getting the same problem, I switched from the ATI to the Intel but now I cant switch back..

 

Maybe we should just try that once and see if that fixes the problem the next time you switch modes.

 

Are you left clicking?

 

For those of you who have done a clean install on your T400, what is your Vista boot time like?

I did a clean install, and the boot time was very slow at first (around 80 seconds). I did a few tweaks and such to get it down to 51 seconds, but that's still a lot slower than people have reported... and they have slower specs than our machines.

 

This is pretty much SOP, but make sure you defrag. Also, Vista always boots slower the first dozen times as it learns what it should load first/programs you load first, etc...

You can also add an SD card (if you got the reader) to use as a readyboost drive. I find that helps the desktop load 10-15 seconds quicker for me (with 2GB of ram, plan to add another 2 later).

From pressing the power on button to Vista logon screen it's about 30 seconds, then another 15 or so after I swipe til I have everything loaded. The Lenovo Power Manager takes the longest to load. Everything else is up in about 5-6 seconds.

 

Every thing runs fine but the volume level (the green bar that becomes visible on the display) along withe brightness thing...they work but they donot show up on the screen..Anyone knows why?
And anyone knows wat to install for the hard disk motion sensor....

 

I think the OSD is a part of the keyboard hotkey program.

 

yes, just noticed taht on the website...thanks ...And anyone happens to know what this is?--> Registry patch to enable Device Initiated Power Management on SATA hard drives for Windows Vista - ThinkPad

 

I think that allows the hard drive to power itself down if it's not being used.

Not really sure as the system should be able to do that also. Maybe if you're trying to eject the disk (but you shouldn't be able to as it's the boot drive).

 

I gotta get a screen calibrator. This color is just weird.

 

I've rebooted more than 5 x dozen times. I have 2GB of turbo memory - doesn't seem to make too much discernible different with readyboost and readydrive on or off.

I have 4GB of RAM.

Someone on another thread with a 1.5ghz C2D processor and 3GB of RAM posted a video of his <30 second vista boot.

 

Are you familiar with msconfig? Did you take a look at all the stuff you have loading up?

Also try it with Power Manager set to Maximum Performance power plan (so your processor is running at full speed). See if that makes a difference.